The present invention relates to platters such as cake platters, and more particularly to platters which may be stacked one on top of the other for storage or transport prior to use.
Cake platters are employed in homes, bakeries and the like in order to support a cake or like bakery-type food article above a support such as a table top, display tray, or the like, and thereby facilitate removal of the cake from the support. Essentially, a cake platter is comprised of a plate having a substantially planar upper surface adapted to support the cake and one or more depending members extending downwardly from the undersurface of the plate and providing a substantially planar lower surface adapted to rest on the support. Some cake platters employ as the depending member a continuous closed flange or shoulder (e.g., an annular flange) depending from the undersurface of the plate, disposed coaxially about a central axis transverse to the plate, and having a lower surface defining a plane; other cake platters employ as the depending member a spaced plurality of lugs depending from the undersurface of the plate and together defining by their lower surfaces a common plane. Cake platters employing as the depending member a continuous closed flange tend to exhibit greater stability when resting on the support than those employing a spaced plurality of lugs, and the present invention is directed only to those cake platters employing as the depending member such a continuous closed flange.
The flange is desirably of a height such that during use of the platter the plate is sufficiently spaced above the support to enable the user to easily slip his fingers underneath portions of the plate, thereby to facilitate removal of the platter and any article thereon from the support. However, the higher the flange, and hence the entire cake platter, the more storage space is required for the cake platter. The height of the cake platter is a matter of considerable importance not only to the bakeries which must store the cake platters in large quantities prior to use (that is, when they do not have cakes thereon), but also the cake platter manufacturers who must not only store, but also transport, the cake platters to the bakeries. To put the matter in perspective, even a small bakery may employ hundreds of cake platters a day, while a cake platter manufacturer may be shipping many thousands a day. Accordingly, any substantial reduction in the space required to stack the cake platters for storage and transport is highly desirable.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide platters, such as cake platters, which are compactly storable.
Another object is to provide such platters which are easy and inexpensive to manufacture and of sturdy one-piece integral construction.
A further object is to provide such platters which optionally have non-slip upper surfaces and guides for cutting articles thereon into segments of equal area.